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Foreign Pharmacy Technician in Denmark

Last activity 18 June 2023 by St4rPT_

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St4rPT_

Hey everyone!


I'd really like to know how viable would it be for a foreign Pharmacy Technician (more specifically, from Portugal) to live and work in Denmark, be it in community pharmacies, hospitals or even industry.


(All of this assuming I do learn the language beforehand and get authorization from the Danish Medicines Agency)


Thank you in advance for your help and insights!

Nellie Berg

Hi St4rPT,


If you meet the requirements regarding language and education, you should have overcome the hurdles.


If you are looking for Portuguese who can share their own experience with you, I suggest to you to get in touch with other Portuguese in Denmark.

https://portugisiskforening.dk/

https://www.facebook.com/portugisiskfor … cale=da_DK


/Nellie

St4rPT_

@Nellie Berg I guess I wanted to know more from an opportunity stand point because there are places that, although not openly (because it's rather illegal), are not very keen on taking foreigners making it harder than what it was supposed to be and I'm worried that could potentially be something widespread enough.


Also, thanks for those links! :D

St4rPT_

I'd also like to add another question that occurred to me now.


Is it possible to get a language certification outside of Denmark? Or would I, in this case, need to seek out that formal education once settled? Since I'm from an EU country it seems I don't exactly need that certification to be able to apply for my qualification equivalencies as per seen at https://laegemiddelstyrelsen.dk/en/phar … acy-staff/ , but I'd still like to have them prior to that, if possible.

Nellie Berg

You'll need to pass a language exam at level 3 to work as a pharmacy technician. It will take you 1 - 2 years full time study to get the necessary skills.

https://www.ug.dk/uddannelser/grundskol … ndinge-mfl



As a foreigner living in Denmark, you are entitled to free language teaching, and you can also choose the course as an online course.


I would say that you have to live in Denmark to become familiar with the language. I cannot think that you can find a serious Danish language course abroad.


When it comes to finding a job, you'll have to compete with native speakers which will be a big handicap for you. On the good side is that there is a shortage of pharmacy technicians, and it might be easier to find a job outside the big towns.


/Nellie

St4rPT_

@Nellie Berg So my alternative would be to aim for pharmaceuticals that work in English instead (and probably need to get a proper certification for English as well beforehand, but that one is easy to obtain in Portugal)? Because one can't exactly afford to spend 1-2 years getting proper language education while not working.


What would you exactly advice in this scenario?

Nellie Berg

To me your plans seem to be steep uphill as you cannot work within your profession for a long period of time, but have to find another way of living.


On the one hand, you are employed in a profession which Denmark could make use of and it's also a profession with no unemployment , on the other hand, it's a profession which needs absolutely good language skills as language misunderstandings can have major consequences.


https://dedanskesprogcentre.dk/english/


I could imagine that a more feasible way to use your education could be working in an international company.


Could a job within the pharma industry in an international company be a possibility? I don't know whether this would be relevant for you, but take a look yourself. If an ad is written in English, it indicates that you don't need to master Danish.


https://www.novonordisk.dk/careers/find … %20Medical


https://www.bavarian-nordic.com/careers/jobs.aspx


https://www.lundbeck.com/da/careers/you … mp;filters[country]=Denmark


/Nellie

St4rPT_

@Nellie Berg I mean, in a way I could "take the downfall" and do some unskilled job while learning the language, but would prefer to avoid that if possible, although it would still be taking a step back to later being able to take 3 steps forward, but I don't know how feasible that would be given the cost of life.


But yes, industry is a possibility in Denmark indeed as opposed to my own country.

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